Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano murdered outside Manhattan steakhouse 40 years ago
Forty years ago, a faction of Gambino crime family members orchestrated and executed a brazen coup to permanently remove their contentious boss, Paul Castellano. On December 16, 1985, assailants shot and killed him in the heart of holiday shopping season in Midtown Manhattan. Born in 1915 in Brooklyn to Sicilian immigrants, Castellano grew up in a world under the influence of local Mafia crime families. That also included his own immediate and extended family. He and Carlo Gambino, his first cousin and future boss, also became brothers-in-law after Gambino married Castellano’s sister, Catherine, in 1932. Castellano’s criminal life began in the 1930s ...
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CIA, Mob team up to topple Fidel Castro in Paramount Plus docuseries ‘Mafia Spies’
The CIA’s alliance with the Mafia during the Kennedy years to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro is at the center…
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John Dillinger’s wooden gun and death mask preserve notorious moments in his life
On July 22, 1934, “Public Enemy Number One” – John Dillinger – was killed by federal agents moments after he…
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Scarface retains cult status with Al Pacino’s ‘iconic’ performance
The 1983 movie Scarface, featuring Al Pacino in the title role, continues to attract attention more than 40 years after…
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The life and crimes of a Sinaloa sicario
Ten years ago, the confessions of a California-based hitman revealed new information on decades-old unsolved cases and offered a glimpse…
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Oscar-winning ‘On the Waterfront’ premiered 70 years ago, with Marlon Brando as a dockworker confronting the Mob
On the Waterfront, which debuted 70 years ago this summer, is a ground-breaking tale about dockworkers standing up to a…
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In 1980s New York, the Mob had its hands in everything — even a museum
This is The Mob Museum, but it has never been a mobbed-up museum. As surprising as it may seem, that…
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Mobsters and their four-legged associates: The top 5 pets of organized crime
“You come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married and you ask me to do…
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